It’s called Windows 8, but it might be simpler to think of it as Windows 7 + 1. Underneath everything you’ll see at first is the same Windows that anyone who has been using Windows 7 since October 2009 is used to seeing.

But it’s that +1 that you’ll see first – and that’s where, for many people, the surprise may start. Microsoft has completely rethought the initial experience – the process by which we start interacting with a computer when its screen comes on – and replaced the “desktop” with a series of large tiles which you swipe (with a finger or mouse) from side to side. “Modern UI”, as it’s called, involves big tiles without the fussy Close or Minimise or Maximise buttons.

I’ve been using the final version of Windows 8 for a couple of months on a Samsung tablet. After a while, the new version feels relaxing; natural, even.

Advertisement

The Start screen, as Microsoft calls it, consists only of those big tiles, and completely replaces the desktop you first see on Windows. That old Windows desktop is still there, it’s just hidden one layer down, and if you want to jump down into it there’s a perfectly good fireman’s pole in the form of a tile called Desktop. Click or touch that, and you’re in Windows 7.

The Start screen houses whatever you want it to on those tiles – which can be “live”, so the weather tile shows the forecast, the mail tile shows the mounting unread toll, your calendar tells of the next meeting … it’s a helpful, innovative experience. You can “pin” Windows apps to the start screen, and you can also download free or paid apps from the built-in Windows store.

Using Modern UI apps does take some getting used to. It’s a minimalist experience which does away with the clunky windows and scroll bars of the “old” Windows. The screen is filled with whatever you’re doing, whether it’s Internet Explorer, or the “social” app (which ties together your social networks in one place), or the mail app, the whole thing takes up all of the screen. There is a neat system that lets you view two windows at once – a second one can be dragged in from the right, and then takes up roughly one-fifth of the screen; you can’t do that with an iPad. However, two is all you get; you can’t pull in another window and have three apps in view.

The control buttons are hidden, and the navigation to get you around the rest of the system – back to the Start screen – is squirrelled away off the right-hand side of the screen.

But it’s around this point that the “+1” nature of this all gets slightly uncomfortable. If, for example you want (for some reason) to change the date on your computer, you won’t be able to do it in the big Modern UI tiles. You’ll have to take the fireman’s pole down to Windows 7. And there it’s all suddenly … the same again. It’s like Bobby stepping out of the shower in Dallas. All those Close, Minimise, Maximise buttons. Title bars on windows. Resizing. All that stuff you’ve been doing since Windows 3.1.

You’ll find that Windows 8 – or 7+1 – runs quicker, more securely, and much more like the operating systems we’re used to on tablets and smartphones, which are themselves becoming the principal way people do computing.

So for Microsoft, Windows 8 is a huge leap forward – and yet it’s doing it while holding all the baggage of the “old” Windows.

Expect some cries of pain as people adjust. However, viewed more broadly, it couldn’t do anything else: the desktop paradigm is getting tired, and the tiles approach is fresh and quickly becomes intuitive. That Windows 8 will be a huge hit is a given. What will be fascinating to watch is how it is received.

We want price controls – Do not we ? RESULT = Ration.I mean previous Pak Governments NEVER told Pakistanis = ALL ELECTRICITY costs money even that made from river. River water created LIMITED electricity is very unreliable. Cost of electricity includes NEARLY HALF spend on TRANSMISSION. Australian PRESS opened my eyes and Pak press only Teaches us price increases are WRONG. Taliban are okay.

Jihadi Mirza Jamal I know no one likes price rises. See no electricity !! Even long Musharaaf rule could not “get cheap” electricity. Bad education. Rent control or Utility Price control = No vacancy or Ration.

STUDENTS who memorised prepared essays might have had a tough time answering questions in yesterday’s Higher School Certificate English exam.

”They asked for something very specific so it would be a little bit harder to adapt to the question,” said year 12 student, Aengus Tran, from Sydney Secondary College’s Blackwattle Bay Campus.

The 18-year-old dux of the school was nursing a fatigued hand following the two hour exam. He wrote 15 pages.

”I didn’t really realise it was sore until the end because I was so focused on the exam and maximising my marks.”

Advertisement

Aengus and his 283 peers at the Glebe school joined almost 70,000 year 12 students who sat the first of their final exams yesterday across 760 exam centres.

It was the first of two written exams for both the standard and advanced English courses, as well as English as a second language (ESL). English is compulsory for all HSC students and paper two will be held tomorrow morning.

Anders Melander, also from Sydney Secondary College, said yesterday’s exam was a little harder than he expected.

”The essay was really specific, so if you hadn’t prepared for that part you were definitely screwed,” he said. ”Memorising an essay could have backfired completely.”

Sheila Pun agreed. ”Some of the short answer questions were really difficult,” she said.

Anders is a triplet and joked that he and his siblings had agreed not to ”shun” whoever gets the lowest ATAR.

”We have sort of supported each other through a group hatred of the HSC,” he said.

The exams are held over four weeks and end on November 8. Visual Arts – art criticism and art history – is the final of 117 papers.

Exams continue tomorrow with earth and environmental science, retail services and a number of language courses.

HSC results are released on December 19, and can be accessed by students via internet, SMS and telephone.

Cheetahs attack woman at safari park

Violet plays with the ‘tame’ cheetah at the Kragga Kamma game reserve near Port Elizabeth. Photo: AP

The photos taken by a tourist from Scotland show his wife on the ground, hair flying, blood on her neck, with two cheetahs nearby.

The Port Elizabeth Herald reported that Violet D’Mello of Aberdeen was attacked by cheetahs on April 28 while in a petting pen with the animals at the Kragga Kamma game reserve near Port Elizabeth in southeastern South Africa.

It says she was attacked while trying to protect young children from another group that was in the enclosure at the same time.

The cheetahs tear at Violet’s hair. Photo: AP

Her husband took photos of the attack, which were published by the local newspaper and others.

Advertisement

One of the photos taken by Archie D’Mello shows his wife Violet smiling and posing with a cheetah raised by humans in the enclosure, before, as she told the Herald, “it became serious very quickly”.

One of two cheetahs in the enclosure first grabbed a young girl, leaving her with scratches and cuts that needed stitches, the paper reported.

Violet has blood on her face as the cheetahs circle after the first attack. Photo: AP

Violet tried to calm the child and her brother, and ended up also being attacked.

She told the BBC she had numerous bite and puncture marks, and that her scalp was “sliced open”.

The cheetahs “weren’t being vicious. You could tell they were just excited”, Violet D’Mello told the Herald.

Iran is struggling to arrest a decline in its oil exports and they could fall to new lows in the coming months due to Western sanctions, putting further strain on the country’s financial resources.

The drop in Iranian supply is supporting oil prices and hurting Tehran’s revenues, deepening hardship for a population deprived of basic imports and adding to pressure on the government over its nuclear programme.

In a report on Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA)estimated Iranian exports falling to a new low of 860,0000 bpd in September, a huge plunge from 2.2 million bpd at the end of 2011.

The comment came as a surprise as the IEA has itself predicted Iranian exports may start picking up after a steep July plunge. Some industry executives agreed with the IEA on Friday that it was too early to predict an arrest in decline.

Advertisement

“We had expected compliance to erode slightly at the margin – some of the participants were trying to evade constraints on shipping – but we haven’t seen any evidence of that yet,” said Antoine Halff, head of the IEA’s Oil Industry and Markets Division.

The slump in exports has led to a steep fall in revenues and clashes on the streets of Tehran as the local currency collapsed.

The European Union banned Iranian crude from July 1 and other countries have cut purchases in response to tighter US sanctions. The EU ban prevents EU insurance firms from covering Iran’s exports, hindering imports by some non-EU buyers.

On Friday, the European Union provisionally approved new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, with senior diplomats giving their backing to measures against Tehran’s banking sector and industry.

Some industry sources had expected to see Iranian exports bottoming out in August and September as customers found ways to get around difficulties in obtaining insurance, such as by using Iranian tankers. The IEA, an adviser to 28 industrialised countries, did not confirm this.

“We might see a little bit of an uptick next month in exports but we do not think it will be very significant,” said Halff, speaking on a conference call. “Our assumption is exports will remain quite low for the next few years.”

Shipping complications

Iran is currently relying on oil exports to China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey. But deliveries even to the most loyal customers have become very volatile.

Turkish imports of Iranian oil plummeted to around 100,000 barrels per day in September after spiking to over 200,000 bpd in August, data showed on Friday.

Industry sources said on Friday Iranian shipments may fall further in coming months as its tanker fleet has been struggling to meet delivery schedules and customers have found securing adequate insurance cover a challenge.

“The Asian buyers have shipping issues around deliveries,” said a source with a company that used to buy Iranian oil. “If they don’t find solutions around shipping, we may see a further decline in exports.”

Producers have stepped in to fill the gap left by Iranian crude in Europe, said an executive with French oil company Total , previously a major buyer of Iranian oil.

“Iranian volumes in Europe have been replaced mainly by Saudi barrels and Iraqi barrels,” said Thomas Waymel, senior VP of crude supply and trading at Total’s trading arm Totsa, at a conference in Geneva this week. He estimated Iranian exports fell to around 1 million bpd in the third quarter.

Iran is slipping down the ranks of the world’s oil producers, having been overtaken by Iraq as the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries behind Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

Iranian production fell by 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.63 million bpd in September, the IEA said.
September’s output is Iran’s lowest since 1988, when the country pumped 2.24 million bpd, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration.

Israel and the United States have said they reserve the right to use force if necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.